The rise and forms(types) of the 18th century English Novel
10. The rise and variety of the 18th Century English novel characteristics of a novel * Long. Characters develop over time. * Before the 18th century we can’t speak about novels. Previous writings showed general tendencies of society, stories were taken form past, history, fables. * The novel challenged all this. It was the first time lengthy works were based on individual experience. * Defoe , Richardson : Pamela , Fielding : Tom Jones * In previous writings people were general types, determined by situations. With the novel, these types changed/dissapeared, people were given proper names. In previous works they were given only historic names, from literature. Now they were given normal names, Richardson gave names to all characters, in Defoe only Moll Flanders is named. Tom Jones is a kind of type name. * Characters developed in time. Time is treated as a progression. Previously the setting was timeless. Time wasn’t important. The novel started to use causal connections. When a person does something at the beginning, it has some consequence. Defoe places his characters into the historical process, Moll x Crusoe Richardson's work is novel like in its treatment of time. Fielding chronological consistent sequences. Reflected historical events. * space:' previously place was not important, very vague Defoe – uses actual places. Objects which are used are described. Not places. Richardson describes scenery, houses a little. Fielding – some description of landscape. * For the 1st time the physical setting is used. * Contributes authenticity, real time, real setting. * Novelists were attacked by critics that they didn't care about elegance, or form x tradition. They had to be supported by the change of reading public. * Who read at the end of the 18th century? – not working people. They couldn’t read and had no money for books. Women from middle classed and upper classes read because they had more and more leisure time and wanted entertainment. The working classes worked, drank, on Sunday went to church, had to pay window taxes > had no light. * Ancestors of novel – books they read Chaucer: Canterbury Tales, John Lilly, Euphues, The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan * The novel developed through the memoir-novel and the epistolary novel of the 16th and the 17th centuries. From the 1st half of the 18th century the novel of the omniscient third person narrator dominated. * The first novels were published serially to test their popularity. Jonathan Swift * Came back to Ireland, priest at St. Patrick’s. A vitally disillusioned man. * Wrote pamphlets and essays. Some of his writings were very influential in the party. Charged some revolt. Drapier’s Letters - series of pamphlets against the decisions of the government Tale of a Tub , káď n. babské žvásty, allegory piece of 3 brothers, they get inheritance from their father, Jack (meaning Jack Celvin – Puritan religion), Martin (meaning Martin Luther – Protestant), Peter (St. Patrick – Catholic), the inheritance is the Christian religion * was a real sensation, some people called it blasphemy, it had some consequences, thus he was never appointed higher in the church Gulliver’s Travels * satire in the form of a narrative of travels * the hero is a sailor Lamuel Gulliver. His ship is shipwrecked, in some fantastic places, 4 parts, 1. – land of Lilliputs who are 6 inches tall. They are very militant, they want to use him against their enemies * 2. country of giants. Brobdingnag, they are very kind and wise. Everything happens in oppositions, 3. voyage to Laputta inhabited by philosophers, scientist etc. spend time persuading nonsenses, sees it as stupid. Attacking the intellectual classes. 4. Hounyhnhms and yahoos, yahoos are horses, very wise, ideal moral instincts. Hounyhnhms are another race, look like people, but disgusting, wild, smelly. At first they think he is one of them. Then they learn he is different. * He comes back home disgusted, can’t bear touch of his wife. Modest Proposal * his best, sharpest, satirical pamphlet * he suggests to solve poverty and over-population in Ireland by feeding Irish children, making them fat, and then killing them for food when they are 1 years old. Claims they are delicious and will make a nourishing meal when stewed or fried etc. * it sounds so logical, the arguments with accompanied details are so attracting that it would be no surprise if the proposal were followed. * Swift condemns the politics of England towards Ireland with great outrage * ironic title * at the end he remembers to remind us that he hads no children, so he is not doing it for any profit of his own. * aroused public opinion, only some charities were organized, lots of other writers followed his methodology. * targets of his satire: 1. England’s exploitation of Ireland. Ireland was used as a source of cheap food and material and forbidden to trade on its own. Its absentee English landlords kept the too numerous Catholic peasants hungry and oppressed. * 2. the Irish – he regarded them as too passive and disgraced by the treatment they received, 3. the benevolent humanitarian – a typical figure who sometimes tries to correct a social evil by a logically – conceived, theoretical plan without respect for reality and individual feeling and with rather more concern for his or her own status and glory. 'Daniel Defoe , 1660 - 1731 * father of English novel. Had no education. Spoke 6 languages. Originally a tradesman. Had many jobs – prisoner, businessman, government spy * his original name: Foe * extremely vigorous man, 40 – 50 literal works * born in London, son of a butcher. His family left the Church of England as a result of the Act of Uniformity and became Presbyterian Dissenters. He married Mary Tuffley in 1684, established as a hosiery merchant in London. His wife brought him a sizeable dowry and remained devoted to him through his many subsequent adversities. He was very fond of travel and journeyed extensively about continental Europe. * In 1685 he took part in Monmouth’s rebellion and in 1688 joined the side of William III, who he later defined in his hugely popular satirical poem The True-Born Englishman * in 1692 was declared bankrupt. His authorship of a stream of political pamphlets landed him with fines. He faced the indignity of being put in the pillory, and imprisonment, but he was saved and pardoned by the Tory statesman and bibliophile, Robert Harley, who used Defoe as a secret agent and pamphleteer. He was imprisoned again in 1713 for a mixture of debts. From this time he settled down to a prodigious literary output which included: Robinson Crusoe, Memoirs of a Cavalier, Captain Singleton, Moll Flanders, Colonel Jack, Roxana, A Journal of the Plague Year * his authorship extended to 560 books, journals, and pamphlets * he left a legacy of a truly enormous contribution to the development of English functional writing, and a deserved reputation as a great reporter. The True-Born Englishman - a popular satirical poem, as a Whig, he attacked the Tories’ prejudice against the Dutch king William II. The Shortest Way with the Dissenters - pamphlet * he ironically demanded the total and savage suppression of dissent. It caused a misunderstanding, he was fined and imprisoned. An Essay on Projects – original, introduces projects that came in the 19th century – hospitals, schools for girls, insurance companies, branches of banks etc. Journal of the Plague Year - major work, 1664 in Britain. For the first time he writes in the first person as if he was present. Novel as a fictional autobiography. Robinson Crusoe - new type of hero. An ordinary man, virtues of the middle classes, energetic, empirical, religious, communicates with God directly. * a lot of detail. Not always probable but we believe them. Puts stress on the hero not on the details. * The admirable thing about Robinson is his energy, ability to survive, similar to Moll Flanders Roxana Moll Flanders – became very popular. Completely new heroine. Similar qualities to Robinson. She’s strong, never gives up. He presents her as a product of environment, fully exposed – we try to understand her emotions. He gives her inner thoughts. * published 1722, when Defoe was 62 * full title: “The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders, etc. Who was born in Newgate, and during a life of continu’d Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a wife (whereof once to her own brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv’d Honest and died a Penitent, Written from her own Memorandums.” * enormous title, sounds like an advert on cheap novel or short story, he wanted to raize a sensation * the book is a racy, often ironic. Realistic and yet romantic tale. Written in the form of an autobiographical memoir, it follows the life and adventures of the orphaned heroine, abandoned from birth. Her mother was transported to Virginia as a convinced thief. She is seduced at an early age and enters a succession of marriages and liaisons. She unwittingly marries her own brother. She meets her own mother in Virginia. She leaves him and returns to England. Back in England she becomes a thief. She is detected, convincted and transported to Virginia in company of one of her former husbands Jemy. She remains remarkably free from the brutalization usually consequent upon such experience. They set up as planters and she also inherits a plantation from her mother. She spends the rest of her life in prosperity and at penitence for her earlier wrongdoing. * no other character is called by name, only Moll and her 5th husband Jemy, she had more than 10 children * spelling – nouns and some adjectives are written with capital letters * tried to avoid idealization which was common in literature of the 18th century and wanted to show what the life of the people was really like. Moll illustrates this even better than Robinson * tries to persuade the readers that his story isn’t invented, that it’s the truth, that it really is a confession of a unreparable thief of the 17th century. The world of the crime makes only a part of the story. Moll’s life begins at prison and after several marriages almost ends there too, but the biggest part shows her life of a lady. It describes in details all her marriages and her husbands in sequence and at the end of each episode she counts what material advantages and disadvantages she earned from them. She loves herself even more than her most loved husband and her main interest is always to get some money. * she is the first whole literal character * follows the life of its eponymous heroine through its many vicissitudes which include her early seduction, careers in crime and prostitution, conviction for theft and transportation to the plantations of Virginia, and her ultimate redemption and prosperity in the Mew World. * Moll was one of the first social novels to be published in English and drew heavily on Defoe’s experience of the topography and social conditions prevailing in the London of the late 17th century. 1740s – Samuel Richardson * Henry Fielding 1770s - Tobias Smollett * Lawrence Sterne Samuel Richardson , 1689-1761 * started writing in his 50s, * was asked to write a volume of modern letters, he produced: Pamela or Virtue Rewarded * an epistolary novel written by 1 person * very moving story of a housemaid. How she resists a young unscrupulous master who wants to seduce her. When he suggests marriage, she agrees. * Pamela writes to her parents, friends, in great detail. Long descriptions of events. Later she serves as a model of this society Clarissa Harlowe * again in letters, for its time the longest novel in English literature. Presented from more than one point of view. More people who write letters, respond differently to the same events, * a young lady wants to avoid marriage. She falls in love. He leaves her. She slowly wades to death. * terribly long description of preparation for her funeral * the founder of the romantic novel Henry Fielding , 1707-1754 * he had to stop writing plays for political reasons * justice of peace. The founder of Bow Street Runners . First kind of detective agency. Hired by judges to investigate some cases * a novelist: Shamela * a parody to Pamela, very tiny, somebody wants to marry a wealthy man Joseph Andrews * another parody which was full bloody comical novel, very simple plot, in service of Lady Booby. He is virtuous. He is kicked out. Then it turns to picaresque novel. Travels with P. Adams, happy-ending The History of Tom Jones * 18 books, his masterpiece. Each book is preceded by an introductory essay. These contain some of Fielding’s best prose * one of the first realistic novels. A lot of characters. They are more than just black and white. He is honest but not virtuous, a new kind of character * from his birth to marriage, full of adventure. Shows normal people, various classes who use different language style * it is the picaresque tradition, involving the adventures and misadventures of a rogouish hero * tom is an adventurous sincere boy with a good heart. He ignores moral codes of the society * works with space, physical setting, time, * founder of realistic novel Amelia Tobias Smollett , 1721-1771 * founder of naturalistic novel Roderick Random * served as a ship sergeant, without any luck, money or friends. He complains all the time about bad luck. Wants to solve it by a marriage to wealthy woman. * all his novels are episodic. Social criticism, connected with life on sea * drew very bitter picture of higher society